Tuesday night cyclocross #5

This Tuesday's race should have been my kind of course. It was mostly flat with a good number of turns. After being okay for the School of Cross and last Tuesday's race but feeling slippery during the Hop 'n' Hurl, my new Michelin Mud 2 tires should have been in their element on the wet grass. I wasn't able to take advantage because my race started after the Sun had officially set and ended right around the end of civil twilight. It probably seemed even darker due to the heavy overcast skies. With my extremely poor night vision, that meant I couldn't go too fast and I was often left guessing as to where the course went. Luckily, I wore my contact lenses because my glasses were fogging up on the second lap and I had to take them off as they were making my limited vision even worse. I had the clear lenses in and left them on at the start in case I took a tree branch in the face; a real possibility with all the turns around trees. On my second lap, I was having so much trouble seeing that I entered one corner way too fast. I wasn't able to make my bike turn on the wet grass at that speed so I had to slow way down then lock up my back tire so I could slide it around to get lined up for the exit of the corner. A few turns later I completely left the course, taking another rider who was following me for a little circle so we could rejoin the race. By my third lap, I was starting to be passed by the lead A riders and I had given up trying to ride very hard. I stayed in just to get a little bit of extra exercise. My lap times were 4:37, 4:53, 4:51 and 5:07 with my second lap including a few seconds of riding in a small circle trying to get back on course. I averaged 18.3 km/h with a maximum speed of 27.3 km/h over the 6 km course. My average heart rate was 161 bpm with a maximum of 172 bpm. For comparison, my average heart rate during the School of Cross was two beat per minute above my maximum heart rate on Tuesday. Next Tuesday the start time will be moved up 30 minutes so my race should start before the official sunset. I might ride with my headlamp just in case.